Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha Beta
If you're looking to get picked is there anything you can do beyond robot performance to move up someone's pick list? Does going to the pit of the top 8 teams and telling them how good your robot is do any good? Is it reasonable to show off your best feature in your last match or 2 (instead of trying to do everything) if you think you are on the selection bubble.
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As Alan already stated, going to teams' pits rarely works. Even if the scouts are there at the time, its unlikely you telling them how good you are will change what the see on the field. If you have been having mechanical issues, it may help to explain what the issues are.
In terms of being on the bubble of getting picked or not, its a very good idea to learn what teams are looking for in partners and have an idea of the depth of the field. In terms of knowing what teams are looking for, this year a common elimination alliance consisted of 2 scorers and 1 defense/herder. If your hoping to be one of the last few teams picked, you probably shouldn't spend the entire match strugging to score 0-2 tubes (like so many teams did this year). Instead, you should showcase your ability to play defense and herd tubes.
Its also important to understand the depth of the field at your event. This was big in 2010, but not as much last year. If your a bubble team that plays each zone fairly equally well and you see there are, say, 18 adquate zone 1 robots at your regional, but only 6 that can play zone 3 decent, you should play each match in zone 3.
As least at the regional level (especially at the shallow ones), its rare to see a team on the bubble that 'gets' strategy to take advantage of these two things.